Traditionally, in designing an imaging system, an optical designer manipulates several parameters, such as lens material, surface curvature and aperture size, and optimizes the parameters to arrive at an imaging system that performs as closely to the desired system as possible within the given constraints.
Wavefront Coded® (“WFC”) imaging systems, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,371 to Cathey et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, utilize aspheric, phase-modifying optics for modifying the phase of electromagnetic energy transmitted therethrough. The phase-modifying optics may be rotationally symmetric or non-rotationally symmetric and, in combination with digital signal processing, function to minimize misfocus-related aberrations that may be present in standard imaging systems (e.g., without aspheric, phase-modifying optics). Some examples of misfocus-related aberrations include chromatic aberration, Petzval curvature, astigmatism, coma, spherical aberration, and temperature-related misfocus among others.